McClatchy Poll: Majority Believe Obama Will Lose in 2012

A majority of voters now believe that President Barack Obama will lose next year’s election to any Republican, and most potential GOP challengers — including unannounced candidate Sarah Palin — are gaining on him, a new poll reveals.

The McClatchy-Marist survey of more than 1,000 adults found that 52 percent of voters think Obama will lose in 2012 — no matter who the GOP candidate is — while 38 percent believe he won’t lose. Even among Democrats, 31 percent believe Obama will be defeated.

Nearly half of voters polled, 49 percent, said they definitely plan to vote against Obama, including 53 percent of independents, while 36 percent of respondents overall said they do not definitely plan to vote against the president, according to the poll results reported by The Miami Herald.

After trailing Obama by more than 20 percentage points all year, Palin is behind the president by just 5 points, 49 percent to 44 percent, in the new poll.